YWCA Nashville & Middle Tennessee will host Stand Against Racism: Healthcare in a Time of Crisis on Sept. 24 from noon until 1 p.m. CDT. The event will examine the devastating effects of COVID-19 on communities of color. Kinika Young, senior director of health policy and advocacy for the Tennessee Justice Center will be among the panelists of healthcare experts. The event is virtual and free for all those who register.  

Fifty two inmates at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, the Tennessean reports. The outbreak was discovered after the Tennessee Department of Correction ordered another wave of mass testing across all state prisons. This round of testing was prompted by a mass outbreak at South Central Correctional facility last week, where 1,144 cases were ultimately reported as of Sept. 1. Data compiled by the New York Times shows that South Central’s outbreak is among the top 15 largest COVID-19 clusters in the country’s prisons. Trousdale Turner Correctional Center in Hartsville is also on that list for an outbreak earlier this year that has since subsided.

Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands will host a phone clinic this Saturday from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. CDT for members of the public with questions about housing and renters’ rights, bankruptcy, medical bills, debt collection, domestic violence, SNAP benefits and unemployment benefits. To volunteer, contact Andrae Crismon or Kendra Cheek or call 615-780-7131. See the full list of clinics for September.

The Vanderbilt Law School Steering Committee on Racial Inequities and Injustices has recommended concrete actions the law school’s faculty, staff and students can take to ensure that the school creates and promotes an inclusive, diverse and supportive environment, the law school reported today. The “2020 Anti-Racism Steering Committee Report” will guide efforts over the next several months to “develop a targeted program” to address student, faculty and staff recruitment; academic and career opportunities; faculty scholarship and programming; and practical learning and volunteer opportunities. Dean Chris Guthrie called the report “an important step” and said there is still “a lot of work to do.”

Nashville city officials are bracing for the likelihood they will see more violations of Metro's public health orders, particularly as they look to expand what residents and businesses are allowed to do during the COVID-19 pandemic. But the city is running out of people to enforce those rules, the Tennessean reports. In response, Mayor John Cooper is seeking to deputize additional city workers to help. Nashville council members will consider that proposal on Sept. 15. Those deputized to assist would have authority to issue stop work orders or suspend permits for any business violating emergency health orders. Some council members expressed concern about the expansion of government power and questioned the extent of training that would be provided to city employees recruited for this new role.

Murfreesboro attorney David Whelan faces an arrest warrant that accuses him of failing to appear in court Wednesday pertaining to rape and kidnapping charges, his lawyer confirmed to the Daily News Journal. The Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office will try to locate Whelan after it receives the bench order. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is also involved in another case in which Whelan is accused of aggravated rape and kidnapping of a teenager and the rape of clients who could not pay their attorney fees. TBI agents also are “working to locate him.” Whelan is next scheduled to be in court on Oct. 1.

A federal judge will not block Tennessee’s implementation of a law that requires verifying signatures of voters looking to cast ballots by mail, the Associated Press reports. U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson recently rejected a request for a preliminary injunction of the law, ruling that the risk of ballot rejection through the verification process is exceedingly low. He also wrote that voters have other options, including voting in-person early or on Election Day if they are concerned about their signatures. A coalition of voting rights groups had sought permission for voters to fix signature issues before ballots were rejected. The ruling is part of a suit challenging three vote-by-mail restrictions the state has imposed for the November election.

Warner C. Hassell, the long-time court administrator for the Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County General Session Court, has announced he will retire effective Sept. 19, the court reported this week. He has served the court for 34 years. To succeed Hassell, the General Sessions Court judges have chosen attorney Kyle Sowell, an 18-year veteran of the Davidson County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office. During his tenure with the clerk’s office, Sowell served as chief clerk of the Probate Court, public information director, chief clerk of the General Sessions Civil Division, and most recently as executive director of the General Sessions Civil Division. Before joining the clerk’s office, Sowell was an assistant state attorney general in the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office. Read more in this release from the court.

After several reversals on the issue and pushback from parents, the state says it will make data on school outbreaks public, Nashville Public Radio reports. The Tennessee Department of Education says it will launch a new dashboard with district-submitted data on Tuesday. The site will have a map and search function of school districts and specific schools. It will be updated once a week. In announcing the move, Gov. Bill Lee said, “We believe that we have developed a reporting mechanism that will help inform parents to help them make choices but it doesn’t compromise our obligation to parents and to students and to teachers … to not compromise privacy around their individual health.”

The New York Times is reporting that Attorney General William P. Barr plans to file antitrust charges against Google as soon as this month, despite objections that department lawyers need more time to build the case. Officials allegedly told lawyers involved in the investigation into Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube, to wrap up their work by the end of September. Meanwhile, a coalition of 50 states and territories are conducting their own investigation but seem split on how to move forward. The Times article looks at the two investigations and how politics may be playing a role.